1. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to fluid collecting devices and more particularly to that class applicable to fluids escaping inadvertently downwards along a vertical surface.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art abounds with paint shields and splash guards for the preventing of splattering and the collecting and catching of coating materials. U.S. Pat. No. 3,528,388 issued on Sept. 15, 1970 to B. P. McLain teaches a portable hand-held paint shield whose paint catching and anti-splattering tray-like receptacle body has an elongated trough-like shape.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,538,532 issued on Nov. 10, 1970 to J. P. Shortino et al discloses a soluble convoluted shield-like assembly for attachment to a hand-held paint roller. One convolution protects the user and the surrounding area from inadvertent splashes due to the application of the paint roller on a surface to be painted. The other convolution comprises a paint retaining trough whose width exceeds that of the paint roller, serving as a supplemental splash guard and drip guard.
The McLain and Shortino patents collect paint and other surface coating materials by transporting between various areas of use, resulting in fatigue and the consequent hesitation to effectively and continually employ the apparatus for the intended purpose.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,693,785 issued on Nov. 9, 1954 to E. H. West Jr. teaches a hand-held collection box utilizing a pair of open ended troughs, whose discharge mouth portion extends over the collecting box and whose wall surfaces are positioned adjacent the lowermost edge of a flight of shingles. Each trough slopes downward so as to direct coating materials, caught thereby toward the collecting box. This invention, though covering a great length along a shingle flight line is tedious to use due to its excessive weight and difficulty of manual positioning ability each time the apparatus is to be relocated below a vertical surface in preparation to the painting or otherwise coating thereof.